Denver officials say voters could be asked as early as November to support a bond election to pay for the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo's possible move to Aurora.

But political experts say getting voters to approve the sale of up to $150 million in general-obligation bonds to move a venerable Denver tradition to another city will be a tough sell.

"It's hard enough to pass tax raises for your school, but to raise money to move something away from your city, I can't imagine that is feasible," said Lori Weigel, partner with Public Opinion Strategies. "I don't know how you message that. I can't imagine how you would even test it."

The 105-year-old stock show wants to relocate to about 300 acres in Aurora, next to a planned Gaylord Entertainment hotel and convention complex.

(The Denver Post)

The stock show has aging buildings and limited space and is hemmed in at its current property near Interstate 70 and Brighton Boulevard.

Other cities in Canada and the United States have newer and larger stock show facilities.

"The competition continues to expand," John Huggins, who is on contract with the city and county of Denver to help with the stock show project, said Wednesday during a meeting with The Denver Post's editorial board.

Gaylord wants the stock show, and the stock show wants to be next to what is likely going to be a spectacular entertainment complex.

"We believe a relationship is within both of our interests," said Pat Grant, former president and chief executive of the National Western, who also met with the Post editorial board.

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The city of Aurora has approved $300 million in tax incentives for the Gaylord group to build its $824 million complex.

Denver and Aurora today will submit a joint application for millions in state tax rebates for the project under the newly created Regional Tourism Act, approved by the legislature to create large-scale tourism projects.

But Denver would still need to come up with about $300 million to relocate the stock show to the new property.

Some of that would come from the sale of the existing stock show site, about 94 acres north of downtown that is estimated to be worth between $10 million and $50 million.

The National Western would likely raise millions in corporate gifts. But the rest could be paid for through a bond sale of up to $150 million that would have to be approved by Denver taxpayers.

Denver is already maxed out on its bonding capacity, meaning any new bond sales before at least 2015 would raise taxes.

Officials say they haven't decided when or even if voters will face a bond election.

"(Tuesday) was the first baby steps to starting a conversation," said Jack Finlaw, chief of staff to Mayor Guillermo "Bill" Vidal.

City officials kept the proposal to move the stock show to Aurora under wraps for about a month until disclosing it Tuesday at a council committee meeting.

Tuesday they also unveiled how they could make a pitch to voters, saying that suburban taxpayers have paid about a quarter of the $2 billion in regional projects that have been built in Denver since 1982.

And Denver already has city-owned amenities outside of the county's borders, including Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Winter Park Resort and other mountain parks. Denver now spends about $1 million a year on maintaining the mountain parks.

"It's really critical as we approach this proposal to remember the success we have had in the regional approach," Huggins told the City Council.

Denver's and Aurora's city councils would have to approve an intergovernmental agreement between the cities.

Denver's council also would have to let the stock show out of its lease, which goes through 2040, and it would have to approve the bond election.

Huggins likened the regional approach to being a rising tide that floats all boats.

"We hope that people who are against this proposal will take the time to look at the issues," he said.

Denver voters would be asked to shoulder the bond burden over Aurora, Huggins said, because Aurora already is heavily subsidizing the Gaylord Entertainment complex through tax rebates and also has a history of rejecting tax increases.

Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb is a member of the nine-member state panel that awards the sales-tax rebates under the Regional Tourism Act.

Webb said other cities have a cautionary tale to what happens when key amenities move away from the city core.

"When you start losing your assets, even under the guise of regionalism, you don't get them back," he said. "You cannot replace neither the money nor the institutional history of the asset that you are letting go."

He said the idea of likening the city's ownership of Red Rocks to the relocation of the stock show next to a hotel complex in Aurora is absurd.

"They are going to compare something that was built in the depression by Civilian Conservation Corps to a lobbyist-led effort in 2011?" he asked.

But Tracy Huggins, executive director of the Downtown Urban Renewal Authority and no relation to John Huggins, said voters could be convinced if the story sounds authentic.

"There is deferred maintenance at the stock show, and they do need to expand to a larger site," she said. "It is the ability to get that information out. The hardest part is getting people to be able to hear the whole story."

This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to incorrect information given to The Denver Post, the date of a possible Denver
bond election to raise money for a move of the National Western
Stock Show & Rodeo was incorrect. The next date for a possible bond election in
Denver is November.

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